


Shikako the Missing-Nin

by DreamOfStories



Series: The Catnap Collection [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Cheerful!Naruto, Deception, Gen, Humour, MissingNin!Shikako, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 16:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5096849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamOfStories/pseuds/DreamOfStories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shikako has been feeling lonely since she left the village. What harm would it do, to say hello to an old friend?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shikako the Missing-Nin

**Author's Note:**

> Originally there was going to be a bingo book involved. It didn't quite fit in the end. Thanks to 13LuckyWishes for the prompting ficlet and the read through. First ficlet can be found on page 19 of the Recursive Fanfiction topic on the Forum.

It had been three months since she had left Konoha. She had hoped to have at least found them by now, but tracking down the remnants of one specific clan was... harder than she had anticipated. They had gone to great lengths to hide themselves while leaving clues their scattered kin could follow. Following the subtle trail they had left had certainly taxed her ingenuity, even as it convinced her that the people who had made the trail had definitely been from her, or at least 'an', Earth. She s upposed she should count herself lucky that the clues were carefully written so as not to be too dependant on any particular culture's idioms or heritage - the ruins of their old clan site had certainly contained enough of those! - but some of the references weren't that much easier. It had been years so half the time she was surprised she remembered anything like the constellations Crux and Orion, which, among other things, didn't have an equivalent in this universe. At least the majority of clues seemed to be geared towards people from the 20th century. If they had been aimed at someone from, say, Ancient Syria, she'd have been completely lost.

It was following these riddles which had led her here, to a small village just beyond Lightning's exclusion zone. It was the third time she'd had to search for an old shrine, each subtly highlighted by manipulating the flow of natural chakra, and this newest one had contained the line 'towards Polaris from where Zeus holds reign.' Given that the village had been named for this world's North Star and was near Lightning, she figured she was fairly close. She just had to wander around until she felt the flow of natural energy and then follow it to its source - easy. If she waited for the single shinobi she could feel on the edge of her senses to leave or go to sleep then she could get the next riddle and be another step closer to finding answers and going home.

She blinked as two fast moving chakra signatures - familiar signatures - entered the town from its far side. All but slamming her chakra into her Shadow Stone, she tried to choke down her panic as she felt the signatures move around the town... almost as if they were searching. Had they... had they found her?

Some of the tension drained away as the pair met up with the other shinobi there, before splitting up. That left one of the newcomers alone while the other two headed off towards Lightening. She took a deep breath and forced it out slowly. Then took another. Then another. She should not have jumped to conclusions. If they had found her it wouldn't have just been Jiraya and Naruto; at a minimum Sasuke, Shikamaru and Kakashi would have been there too. Probably more, she was fairly certain she wasn't less valuable to her friends than Sasuke had been. No, she didn't need to panic. She was fine. They hadn't found her. Not yet.

But... she needed to go to the village. Not only were her supplies getting low, she was certain that was the next waypoint. If she could just get to it and memorise what was written wherever it had been hidden... But it had been months... And even if he was furious at her, it would be so nice to see a friendly face, to not hide herself for once... and she had got so much better at turning to shadows.

...What would be the harm... Just for an hour or so while Jiraya wasn't there...

The flow of chakra led her to the water fountain in the village's centre. Unlike the other waypoints, there was no riddle or hidden symbols to point where she should go next, just a basin of water carved from some highly polished stone. Had she got it wrong? She frowned and sent a carefully controlled thread of chakra in to examine the fountain. There was something there, something that reminded her of her kidnappers, that tugged gently at her chakra and reminded her of the seals that caused the interesting flow of natural energy, not that she could really look at them. She had never gotten her seal microscope to work...

"Hey! Hey you! Shikako!"

Shikako spun around, unsure how she had completely missed the fact that Naruto was no longer loitering where Jiraya had left him and wandered her way instead. Glancing around carefully, she relaxed when she didn't see or feel anyone else and cautiously turned to Naruto.

He was beaming at her. Like being here was an awesome surprise and a birthday gift and just the most amazing thing ever. She managed a cautious smile back and Naruto let out a happy laugh and swept her into a hug. "I knew I recognised you! You just look so different! What's with wearing all that blue like the teme? I thought green was your colour? What's your mission? Can I help? How's everyone doing back home? I bet everyone's getting really strong! Can-"

Shikako felt an immense wash of relief as Naruto chattered away. He didn't know. This... this visit could turn out ok. She smiled shakily and stepped away to get a better look at her teammate.

"Ne, Shikako? You ok?"

"Hm?"

"Well before you were all kinds of tense and then you just relaxed like 'poof' and now you're kinda..." He squinted at her before smiling. "You look way better than when I last saw you!"

Shikako blinked. "I do?"

"Yeah, you've always been kinda intense but now you're sort of... more relaxed? Not completely - and you should definitely sleep more because you've got these bags under your eyes that are kinda blue and you look kind of thin... I know! Ramen! The place here isn't anywhere near as good as Ichiraku's but it isn't bad either and ramen always makes everything better!"

Shikako let Naruto chatter on as he pulled her towards what as presumably the ramen stand (trust Naruto to know exactly where the best ones were) and thought back on what her teammate had said. It was... true... she guessed. She had been feeling less stressed since she'd left. Her family would either forgive her or they wouldn't when she got back, but at least now things weren't getting worse with a constant cold silence. There was no one pushing at her, telling her she wasn't ok, that she was failing. There was no background worry in her mind that she might slip up, that her fellow shinobi would notice her secrets. Konoha didn't need her. They had managed fine without her before and this time they had Sasuke as well! Right now, the only one she was responsible for was herself and that felt... that felt kinda good.

"Share! I want to hear how everyone's doing!"

Shikako grinned at Naruto and proceeded to tell him about everything that had been happening. She started with the chunin exams (You fought Gaara! You have to show me this great pillar thing!); how they each did and their promotions (All of you, datteybayo! That's brilliant!); about the piggyback race back though she left out the kidnapping (Sasuke too? Haha!); and finally her promotion to special jonin and her assignment to the intelligence division and the sensory squad. Naruto was an appreciative audience and seemed genuinely pleased at how they had all done. It was nice, Shikako had forgotten what it was like, to just sit and talk to someone without the constant looks and 'are you ok's. Being with Naruto again, feeling his familiar sunny chakra as they ate ramen together... It was nice.

Then she felt it. Chakra, familiar chakra that she had felt before in a rough stone room. Naruto noticed her distraction and groaned. "I guess you've got to get on with your mission, huh?"

She shrugged and sent him a reluctant smile. "Sorry. You know how it is."

"Yeah... You should come find me more often though! I like knowing how you're all doing! Pervy-sage won't tell me anything!"

"I'm sure he's got a plan." Pulling some loose change out and putting it on the counter, she pulled her pack on and made sure she had everything secured. "Take care of yourself, yeah?"

"You too! Good luck!"

Shikako waved an absent hand over one shoulder as she focused on tracking down that elusive chakra, Naruto loudly demanding another bowl behind her. If she was lucky, she might have just found what she'd been looking for. She might even get to go home soon. It was... a nice thought...

.

Thoughtfully, Naruto watched his teammate go while keeping half an ear on the ramen chef. He hadn't lied, she did look more relaxed than he'd seen her in forever, but... he could tell something was up, just as he could tell she didn't want to talk about it. Those bags under her eyes didn't look so bad now, but the size of them showed that they had been pretty awful at one point. And she was definitely thinner. Perhaps he should send a letter to Kakashi-sensei and the Teme telling them to take better care of her. Shikako was good at hiding things that upset her; they might not have noticed if it was a slow change and she didn't want to worry them. Jiraya had taught him all about that!

Feeling accomplished, he finished off two more bowls of ramen and bounced back to the inn to write out his letter. A few lines later, Jiraya came stomping into the flat looking annoyed. Naruto frowned at him. Now he'd forgotten what he was going to write! Jiraya frowned back before sending a suspicious look at the paper he was writing on.

"Ok brat, what are you doing?"

"I'm writing a letter of course! Kakashi-sensei and the Teme need to take better care of Shikako-chan!"

Jiraya winced. "You heard, then?"

Naruto stilled. That... didn't sound good. Shikako had skipped over things, yeah, but they'd been having a good time! Of course she wasn't going to bring up depressing stuff...

"Look, I know you want to go charging off to help her, but it's better if you just continue training with me."

Naruto scowled at him, crossing his arms and focusing everything he had on not showing he was puzzled. Which 'her' was he talking about? Ino? Ten-ten? Shikako had said they were doing really well at the chunin job thing. Hinata too! The only girl he knew that she hadn't mentioned much about was... Damn it! Had something happened to Sakura-chan?

"Come on! It's been three months! Even if you could go back and follow her trail, it would be completely lost by now. Your sensei and the hunter nin have already tried."

Naruto's mouth dropped open in horror. "Sakura-chan's missing?!"

"What?! No! Damn it, brat, where did you get that idea?! We're talking about Shikako running off to be missing nin!"

"...Shikako did WHAT?!"


End file.
